Sucked Into The Negative / Happenings In The Outhouse 19-April-2024

It's so easy to get sucked into the black hole that is negativity.

Happens all the time in social media and even in real life.

A few weeks ago, the company I work with made a decision on shifting some employees around to other departments.  They even so far as to offer them the opportunity to work in newly formed departments or offer positions in a variety of other departments.  The department they were currently in was being shifted overseas (where there was already an office).

Now, where is the negativity in this?  Online via social media, of course.  And across the region's news outlets.  The majority of the headlines and articles were slanted against the company, and did not reflect the true picture of what was going on.

I am in no way, shape, or form backing what the company was doing, as it could have done a much better job of communicating.  That being said, it brings to light the bigger picture of negativity.  I read the comments and shook my head at how misinformed people are.

So I digress: do not get sucked into the mire of negativity.  Move on.  Take a step back and see the bigger picture.

When Cop Stuff Is Not Told Right / Happenings In The Outhouse 05-April-2024

This goes with any profession.  From law enforcement to nursing, from plumbing to pilots, and a host of other things, it's difficult to get all of the details right.

As a former law enforcement officer, with years of experience throughout many aspects of that profession, it irks me when I see shows where things are so wrong.  My wife and I just finished watching the hit TV show Sons of Anarchy.  We loved it, but there were aspects of both law enforcement and nursing that struck us both.

It's difficult to get all of the details right, but when some are so blatant (cocking back the hammer on a Glock pistol, for example) I just shake my head as it throws me right out of a story.

The storyline for SOA was complex and entertaining.  Yes, you were cheering on the bad guy, but when there were varying degrees of badness, you seemed to be cheering on some more than others.

The first thing that struck me was that city cops typically wear blue.  County deputies wear brown.  All of the city cops in SOA wore brown.  And when it came to hospitals and security, that seemed to be thrown right out the window with SOA.  No one should be able to walk into a hospital administrator's office or a doctor's office that is closed.

In a nutshell, if you're going to make things far-fetched as SOA had done, do it well when it comes to story.

It's all in the details.

And I could go on with this.  I probably will in future posts . . .

Setbacks As A Learning Tool / Happenings In The Outhouse 20-Aug-2021

I read an article last week where it addressed the notion of not speaking out on any career setbacks as it may come across in a negative light.  Although I typically don't talk about my day job nor broadcast who my employer is, the article spoke to me as I use my setbacks as a training tool for folks not as far along in their career.

Early on where I work, I applied for a variety of leadership roles.  I always secured an interview with the powers that be, but advancing into leadership didn't seem to be in the cards.  No one could offer any feedback as to why.  I'm not blaming anyone for this.  With our litigious environment in society, messages back to me were vague and offered no direction.

Yes, your typical HR response, in cases.  Again, it was just the nature of the beast as they didn't have a mechanism for feedback.

After receiving the news on someone else being offered the job instead of me, I decided to take a step back and work on improving myself.  I held off on applying again until I learned as much as I could, working hard to better myself and my skills.

Then, a number of years later, a leadership opening in my department prompted me to apply again.  I chatted with the manager and director as I sat down for the interview.  After the first question, which led a fair bit of discussion, they advised me that the current leadership role I was applying for may not be a suitable for me and my talent/skills, but one they were creating had me written all over it and would be thrilled for me to lead in that position.

I accepted.

Don't use the lack of feedback as an excuse not to improve yourself.  Reflect on your current skills as well as the skills needed for what you want to do.  If you want to be better at woodworking, not only throw yourself into experimenting with it but also study those who do woodworking very well.  If you want to be a better painter, same thing.  Auto mechanics or public speaking, also the same.

I do the same with writing.  I've received feedback on what I do well, but I also experiment and study skills I'm lacking.

Strive to learn.

Strive to improve.

And best of all, have fun doing it.

Create instead of criticize / Happenings In The Outhouse 03-Jan-2020

I've never really been one to criticize a creative work (i.e. movie, TV show, book, painting, music).  It either worked or it didn't.  It's something I feel in my gut.  Typically, my criteria is simple: did it entertain me?

Take any of the negative controversy over The Last Jedi.  Sure, there are parts of it that made me scratch my head.  But I enjoyed it.  Heck, it was Star Wars for crying out loud!  I also found Solo: A Star Wars Story as equally entertaining and enjoyable.

It always amazes me the ones who criticize a creative work, and they have never been brave enough to create their own work.  It's possible they're afraid of the same criticism they've bestowed upon others.

I have two words of advice for all the creatives out there: be brave.

Go out there in the new year, the new decade, and create something new.

Please don't write down to readers / Happenings In The Outhouse 25-Jan-2019

Writers, by and large, don't seem to write down to readers.  Movies, on the other hand, seem to do so.  Whether this is the fault of the director, the movie studio, the producers, the screenwriters, or a combination of them all.

Some of the fault may also lie in the movie-goer themselves.  I was listening to a recent podcast where they analyzed Fantastic Beasts 2: Crimes of Grindelwald.  Those on the podcast irritated me to no end.  Not because they completely trashed the movie--hmm, it grossed $650+ million and was one of the top ten movies of 2018--but because they didn't see the big picture.  They wanted all of the mystery spelled out for them--no, I will not share what the podcast is nor share a link, so please do not ask me.

First, let me express my deep distain for reboots of old movies.  I've been noticing a trend the past decade or two that there are very few original movies--okay, there are, but they get overshadowed by reboots.  I am a child of the 1980's, which, in my opinion, is the hallmark of original movies.  Many of the classic movies that topped the charts in those days were original.

Then, in the past few decades, there are reboots upon reboots--Ghostbusters, anyone?

Back to the Fantastic Beasts discussion, what they mostly complained about was the lack of clarity for the future.  They didn't see the mystery behind it.  They also kept comparing it to both the original Harry Potter movies as well as the canon behind it.

I read a lot of various series.  Years ago, I made a study on it, to compare first novels in series.  All seem to do it differently.  Some series are written where one can read any book in the series and not get lost.  Others, you do need to start at book one.  But there seems to be an underlying fact: the writer still leaves an air of mystery by not telling all in the first book.  They also don't dumb down their stories.  One must assume a reader is smart enough to know what you're talking about.  And if they don't, they'll still keep reading until they do understand it.

I think this is a topic I'll tackle more later.  As you can tell from the length of this post, I have much to say on this subject.

Entitlement vs. The Cursed Child / Happenings In The Outhouse 05-Aug-2016

J. K. Rowling's eight Harry Potter book has been released into the world.  As of this writing, I am roughly halfway through it and loving it--and yes I knew it was a script book LONG before it came out.

My thirteen-year-old daughter read it in one night, in about six hours.  And she LOVED it!  Here's the proof, if you don't believe me - here's a cute note she wrote to me:

I was disappointed in the reviews I read on Amazon.  One such review said something to the fact that THIS ISN'T THE BOOK ROWLING OWED ME.

Sorry?  J. K. Rowling doesn't owe you at all.  She can do whatever she wants.  All writers can do whatever they want with their art.  Fans are owed nothing.  So what if the new Harry Potter book is a script book.  I agree it was a little difficult to read at first, simply because I don't read that many script books (I can probably count the number of script books on one hand and have enough fingers left to pick my nose and possibly even flip someone the bird).

But I have still enjoyed it.

I clearly remembered when the news broke regarding the new book.  I did read the fine print, which said it was a script book.  I told my daughter--the one who read it in six hours and even read the entire series last summer--and she shrugged.  "So what?  I'll still love it."

And she did.

And so have I.

Be thankful of all reviews (even negative ones) / Happenings In The Outhouse 27-Nov-2015

Yesterday, in the United States at least, was the annual Thanksgiving holiday for 2015.

A month or so ago, I got a nasty 2-star review on one of my books.  I don't read much into negative reviews--in fact, most of the time I skim through them and then move on with my life.  Every single book worth its salt has a negative review out there, no matter if it was published today, yesterday, last year, or over a hundred years ago.  To prove it, here is my bad review on Bram Stoker's "Dracula."

Be thankful for reviews, even if they are negative.  This particular 2-star review didn't have much to say, although near the end the reviewer said the reason why they didn't give it a 1-star was because they liked the characters.  I felt good about that one and disagreed with the rest of it.  No harm, no foul.

I am thankful for anyone who reviews my books, good, bad, or otherwise.  You are not going to resonate with everyone.  That's okay.  Be thankful there are people who do.

Oh, by the way, this particular reviewer who gave me a 2-star review didn't seem to like very many books.  When I looked at other books, most were 1 and 2-star reviews.  And, no, I will not provide a link to the review.  I've moved on with my life and am still writing.

I am just thankful for being able to do what I love to do.

As a final note, I have some exciting news next week.  Stay tuned . . .